An oxide superconducting bulk body (so-called QMG (registered trademark) bulk body) in which RE2BaCuO5 phase is dispersed in a monocrystalline REBa2Cu3O7-x (RE is a rare earth element) phase has a high critical current density (hereinafter also referred to as “Jc”). Therefore, it can be used as a superconducting bulk magnet excited by cooling in a magnetic field or pulse magnetization and capable of generating a strong magnetic field.
Examples of application fields requiring a strong magnetic field include NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) and MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging). A superconducting bulk magnet to be used for both application fields is required to have a strong magnetic field of several T and high uniformity on the order of ppm.
With respect to NMR application using an oxide superconducting bulk body, there are applications to small (for example, desktop) NMR described in, for example, Patent Documents 1 to 6 and Non-Patent Documents 1 and 2. The fundamental technical ideas of these small NMR applications are as follows. Conventional superconducting magnets for NMR used as magnetizing magnets use superconducting wires, are relatively large, have high uniformity on the order of ppm, and can generate high strength magnetic fields. Inside the room temperature bore of the conventional superconducting magnet for NMR, a bulk magnet structure formed by layering a plurality of ring-shaped oxide superconducting bulk bodies is disposed. By cooling this bulk magnet structure to a superconducting state in a highly uniform magnetic field and then removing the applied magnetic field, the uniform magnetic field generated by the conventional superconducting magnet for NMR is copied to the bulk magnet structure.
In application to such a small NMR, a superconducting magnet for NMR of a wide bore (room temperature bore diameter of 89 mm) is usually used as a magnet for magnetization. Accordingly, in combination with it, a ring-shaped oxide superconducting bulk body having an outer diameter of about 60 mm and an inner diameter of about 30 mm is used. In this case, the magnetization temperature is considerably low, on the order of 40 K, and magnetization is performed under conditions that sufficiently high critical current density (Jc) can be obtained. Specifically, the superconducting current in the cross section of the ring-shaped oxide superconducting bulk body is not in the state of flowing through the entire cross-section (fully magnetized state) but in a state where the superconducting current flows only partially (non-fully magnetized state). By doing so, it is possible to copy a strong magnetic field in the NMR superconducting magnet with a margin. Furthermore, after magnetization, in order to ensure the temporal stability of the magnetic field copied into the ring-shaped oxide superconducting bulk body, the magnet is further cooled from the magnetization temperature to obtain a magnet for small NMR.
Focusing attention on the magnetization methods of Patent Documents 1 to 6 and Non-Patent Documents 1 and 2, for example, Patent Document 1 discloses a method for pulse magnetization and static magnetic field magnetization in an NMR system having a bulk magnet in which ring-shaped oxide superconducting bulk bodies are layered. Patent Document 2 discloses a magnetization method using an NMR system having a bulk magnet in which ring-shaped oxide superconducting bulk bodies are layered such that the magnetic field strength distribution in the central portion has a magnetic field distribution peak at the center of the magnetic field.
Further, Patent Document 3 and Non-Patent Document 1 describe a magnetization method by applying a uniform static magnetic field. In such a magnetization method, a superconducting magnetic field generator having a tubular superconducting body formed by coaxially arranging tubular superconducting bulks having a small magnetic susceptibility on both end faces of a tubular superconducting bulk having a high magnetic susceptibility is used. For example, according to the superconducting magnetic field generator disclosed in Patent Document 3, by designing the magnetic susceptibility and shape of the superconducting bulk so as to satisfy certain conditions, a captured magnetic field having a uniform magnetic field strength in the axial direction of the superconducting body can be formed in the bore of the superconducting body.
Patent Document 4 discloses a superconducting magnetic field generator having a correction coil disposed around a superconducting body made of a tubular superconducting bulk. According to such a superconducting magnetic field generator, when applying a magnetic field to the superconducting body to magnetize it, the applied magnetic field is corrected by the correction coil, whereby a captured magnetic field having a uniform magnetic field strength in the axial direction of the superconducting body can be formed in the bore of the superconducting body.
Patent Document 5 discloses a superconducting magnetic field generator having a superconducting body formed in a tubular shape such that the inner diameter of the center portion in the axial direction is larger than the inner diameter of the end portion. According to such a superconducting magnetic field generator, by setting the inner diameter of the center portion in the axial direction of the tubular superconducting body to be larger than the inner diameter of the end portion, the magnetic field that cancels out the nonuniform magnetic field generated by the magnetization of the superconducting body is formed in the bore of the superconducting body. In Patent Document 5, it is considered that a captured magnetic field having a uniform magnetic field strength in the axial direction of the superconducting body can be formed in the bore of the superconducting body by removing the nonuniform magnetic field in this way.
In Patent Document 6 and Non-Patent Document 2, a magnetization method for obtaining a uniform magnetic field by inserting a tube in which a tape wire material having a high critical current density Jc is spirally wound into a bulk magnet in which ring-shaped oxide superconducting bulk bodies are layered, thereby cancelling the magnetic field component perpendicular to the axial direction.
On the other hand, in application to a small NMR, very strong magnetic field is confined in the compact space of the bulk magnet structure. For this reason, a large electromagnetic stress acts inside the superconducting bulk body. This electromagnetic stress is also called “a hoop stress” because it acts to spread the confined magnetic field. In the case of a strong magnetic field of 5 to 10 T class, the electromagnetic stress may exceed the material mechanical strength of the superconducting bulk body itself. As a result, the superconducting bulk body may break. If the superconducting bulk body breaks, the superconducting bulk body cannot generate a strong magnetic field.
In order to prevent breakage of the superconducting bulk body due to such electromagnetic force, for example, Patent Document 7 discloses that a superconducting bulk magnet is constituted by a columnar superconducting bulk body and a metal ring surrounding the superconducting bulk body. By adopting such a configuration, compressive stress by the metal ring is applied to the superconducting bulk body at the time of cooling, and the compressive stress has an effect of reducing the electromagnetic stress. Therefore, cracking of the superconducting bulk body can be suppressed. Thus, Patent Document 7 shows that breakage of the columnar superconducting bulk body can be prevented.
As another configuration example of the superconducting bulk body for preventing the breakage of the superconducting bulk body, for example, Patent Document 8 discloses a superconducting magnetic field generator in which seven hexagonal superconducting bulk bodies are combined, a reinforcing member made of a fiber reinforced resin or the like is disposed around them, and a support member made of a metal such as stainless steel or aluminum is disposed on the outer circumference of the reinforcing member. Patent Document 9 discloses an oxide superconducting bulk magnet in which ring-shaped bulk superconducting bodies having a thickness in the c-axis direction of the crystal axis of 0.3 to 15 mm are layered. Patent Document 10 discloses a superconducting bulk magnet in which a plurality of ring-shaped superconducting bodies having reinforced outer and inner circumferences are layered. Patent Document 11 discloses a superconducting bulk magnet in which superconducting bodies having a multiple ring structure in the radial direction are layered. Patent Document 12 discloses a bulk magnet in which the outer circumference and the upper and lower surfaces of one bulk body are reinforced.
In addition, as a configuration example of an NMR analysis device magnet with which it is easy to exchange a sample, for example, Patent Document 13 discloses that, in an NMR analysis device magnet in which a magnetic field space is formed by a wound conductor, two similar wound coils having a common center axis are formed with a certain gap therebetween, and access to the magnetic field space is possible from the gap.